Friday, July 11, 2008

Luck

Late May and June is when we have our exams, so I've been... uh... studying. Yeah. Studying. And not misusing my study break to play MMORPGs at all. Because it's a study break. For studying. Yeah.

So anyway, useless profundity is what I'm good at, so here's an interesting thought, one I've been saving up just for you.

LUCK

Luck's an odd concept. It's kind of like the favour of a god, without a god (so for an atheist like me, you might say there's no difference, but since they all rely on the vagaries of chance the perception is the only thing that matters, and the perception IS different). Who confers luck? It's talked about like a measurable thing: "He's lucky" or "She's unlucky". But it's not like height. It changes. Others can wish it upon you willy-nilly: "Good luck with your exam!" (yes, this is the phrase that kicked me off on this speculation. Possibly caused the C in political ideas... or maybe I should have studied). But wishing luck on someone, particularly for something like an imminent exam, poses some interesting quandaries.

Most of the things that will affect your exam mark - the scaling of the exam, the difficulty of the questions, the type of questions (multi-choice will always be easier than essay even if it's asking more in-depth questions), whether or not the teacher agrees with you, whether your bribe was big enough, whether you studied enough, whether you spent too much time playing games instead *cough*... all of it is decided before you even wake up the morning of the exam. The only variable is in how you apply your study to the questions - a matter of skill more than luck.

So what does this mean? Does this mean that most people really think that a few words can alter the past to such an extent as to make the world a better fit with their friends' expectations and skills? Probably not, though there will always be some weirdo who'll say yes to that... probably it's just a social thing that no one ever examines deeply enough. Most things are like that. And it did make me feel better going into the exam... and you should never underestimate the power of positive thinking.